The GAF Video and Filmmaking Thread

Im going to be gaffa on a pilot for a TV Show.

Any recommendations for what lights to bring?


Its a comedy, so I am thinking well lit, warm colors.

I was thinking:

2 HMIs - with both blue and orange pipes

4-6 - 800 Watt Redheads

a couple of reflector boards

some flags

some cable drums!

some c stands(6 or so...) and clamps


do I need anything else? Its all interior. I think some of it will be fake night and fake daylight. I might need a stronger light source. perhaps a 2k?

I have one short exterior but I dont want to fiddle with goddam generators.. I cant work that shit or take responsible for when everything fucks up. I just run away from the set!



help gaffffff!
 
Did you guys see this? Sony announced a S35 sensored camera called the PMW-F3K. Full details are still about a week off but it is set to basically be a small form F35 (sony's top of the line digital cinema camera) for about 25 grand. That puts it in RED one's ball park.

It uses a special sensor that is not 4k or whatever like the RED, instead it is going to output 1920x1080p like the F35 but it has photo-receptors 4 times larger than standard chips which is going to give it GODLY low light abilities. Probably the most sensitive chip ever put into the hands of users for that cheap a price.

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xd...ony-uk-announce-pmw-f3-10am-utc-facebook.html
 
Fidelis Hodie said:
God I hate coheed and cambria.

Cool intro, though. Too bad there's no way I was getting through that video.
Click to expand...
Hahah, too bad. It was my first time editing a live action music video. I'm in talks to direct, shoot, and edit a local band's video in time for their CD release. Wish me luck.
 
So for our entry for my school's film club we had to do something based on a prompt. Our prompt was Late to Class.

Here is what we came up with.

It's not completely finished, and its still missing a few sound effects and shots, but what's there works, for the most part.

Late to Class
 
kai3345 said:
So for our entry for my school's film club we had to do something based on a prompt. Our prompt was Late to Class.

Here is what we came up with.

It's not completely finished, and its still missing a few sound effects and shots, but what's there works, for the most part.

Late to Class
Click to expand...
:lol LOL just tighten up the camera work in the beginning by editing out the parts where the camera pans to the ground there. The Alley sequence and the rest is pretty good
 
kai3345 said:
So for our entry for my school's film club we had to do something based on a prompt. Our prompt was Late to Class.

Here is what we came up with.

It's not completely finished, and its still missing a few sound effects and shots, but what's there works, for the most part.

Late to Class
Click to expand...

:lol There's a very creepy vibe to the whole thing. But it was really cool, especially how much you got done!
 
I'm hopefully picking up a camera later this week to shoot short films and learn a thing or two about camerawork in general. So far everyone has suggested the Canon 7D, but I just now heard about the Canon Rebel. Anyone here know how the two compare?
 
If you really just want it for video, the Rebel T2i will serve you just as well as the 7D. It lacks in build quality, but image quality and feature-wise it's basically the same camera when it comes to video.
 
XMonkey said:
If you really just want it for video, the Rebel T2i will serve you just as well as the 7D. It lacks in build quality, but image quality and feature-wise it's basically the same camera when it comes to video.
Click to expand...

Build quality? Meaning it more fragile? I'm also interested in taking some stills, so is it just as good in that department as well?
 
MetalAlien said:
Did you guys see this? Sony announced a S35 sensored camera called the PMW-F3K. Full details are still about a week off but it is set to basically be a small form F35 (sony's top of the line digital cinema camera) for about 25 grand. That puts it in RED one's ball park.

It uses a special sensor that is not 4k or whatever like the RED, instead it is going to output 1920x1080p like the F35 but it has photo-receptors 4 times larger than standard chips which is going to give it GODLY low light abilities. Probably the most sensitive chip ever put into the hands of users for that cheap a price.

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xd...ony-uk-announce-pmw-f3-10am-utc-facebook.html
Click to expand...


Here is Philip Bloom's take on this camera. Also Sony announced a camera priced about the same as the EX1/EX3 (I use an EX3) that uses the EXACT same sensor as the new F3!

Awesome is hardly the word!

http://philipbloom.net/2010/11/17/f3nxcam/

http://vimeo.com/16933707
 
Tkawsome said:
Build quality? Meaning it more fragile? I'm also interested in taking some stills, so is it just as good in that department as well?
Click to expand...
Both cameras aren't fragile in any sense of the word, but the 7D is a beefier camera. It has a magnesium frame and weather sealing while the T2i lacks both of these because it's much cheaper. I don't see this being a huge problem in operation, it's more a peace of mind thing (although the weather resistance is a nice bonus).

Regarding stills, the 7D and the T2i have virtually the same image sensor so basic image quality for photos will be very close. The 7D earns its price moreso because it has a higher end featureset due to fantastic AF, a great viewfinder (considering it's a crop camera), wireless flash trigger capability, etc. These make it the better still camera, but for video it doesn't hold much of a feature advantage at all.

In my opinion if your focus is video, get the T2i and spend the rest on accessories to make your video better like a solid tripod with a good fluid head, external audio recorder, viewfinder attachment (I like the LCDVF but it's a little expensive), shoulder mount, ND filters, and certainly not least of all: lenses.
 
XMonkey said:
Both cameras aren't fragile in any sense of the word, but the 7D is a beefier camera. It has a magnesium frame and weather sealing while the T2i lacks both of these because it's much cheaper. I don't see this being a huge problem in operation, it's more a peace of mind thing (although the weather resistance is a nice bonus).

Regarding stills, the 7D and the T2i have virtually the same image sensor so basic image quality for photos will be very close. The 7D earns its price moreso because it has a higher end featureset due to fantastic AF, a great viewfinder (considering it's a crop camera), wireless flash trigger capability, etc. These make it the better still camera, but for video it doesn't hold much of a feature advantage at all.

In my opinion if your focus is video, get the T2i and spend the rest on accessories to make your video better like a solid tripod with a good fluid head, external audio recorder, viewfinder attachment (I like the LCDVF but it's a little expensive), shoulder mount, ND filters, and certainly not least of all: lenses.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, you may have saved me a ton of money. I still need to look up a few more sources, but now I'm really leaning towards the Rebel. When I pick up the camera I'll pop in to bug you guys with questions about accessories and lenses.
 
Another movie my friends and I made while bored.

The Unholy Way

This is the second in our series about "Chuckles" who (in real life) is the brother of one of our group members. We dramaticize things he does and then post them to his facebook wall to make him look like a complete dick. He is baisically a complete asshole to everyone around him, for example he keyed my car because I told him "Lol your xbox broke" on facebook. (Which we also dramaticized in Chuckles - The Truth)

In this episode Ethan brings his friend over to play some Xbox, but Chuckles won't let him because he just woke up (its 5 in the afternoon) and he's playing his favorite game Oblivion, while simultaneously watching 30 Rock on Hulu (yes he does this in real life).

Watch, Critique and Enjoy!
 
oatmeal said:
Remove the 25 second introduction...it's WAY too long.

5 seconds, no more.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Not doing it for that project but my next short film will have our "real" opening. The wife has been playing with Motion a lot lately so she wants to do a five second Hollywood style animation with our logo. Something simple and to the point.
 
Hey...

How do you do... I don't know what it's called... spastic editing? Tim and Eric for example. Where it's almost like a DJ scratching a turntable but you are scrubbing the video...

I have Premiere CS5 and I am swiping my finger left and right on my MacBook Pro's trackpad and it kind of does the effect I'm looking for.
 
Anyone know what this effect is called, or how to achieve it?

I don't know exactly how to describe it, I always just call it "The Strobelight Effect". A lot of action movies and music videos use it. I named it that because its usually used in shots with a lot of movement and it looks as if someone was making a bunch of movement in a strobelight, just minus the actual strobelight.

I'll see if I can dig up an example on youtube.
 
Hey GAF, I don't usually peak into this thread but I figured I might as well check it out. I'm taking Film Production (BFA) at York right now, middle of the 2nd year. Thought I could share my final from first year. Shot on Bolex, 16MM B&W Reversal, MOS. The professor did the digital transfer, and it sucks. I'm thinking of getting someone else to do it in the future so I can have a nice digital copy of it.

Editing it was a pain as the Director's Cut is probably 3-4 minutes longer. Always hard to decide what needs to get cut.

Underage Thinking
 
I was looking for this thread a while ago. Glad it's back on the front page. I'd like some feedback on some stuff:

Short lightsaber video - Just to try and see if I could composite together some shots and do the whole "rotoscoping" thing needed for saber stuff.

A goofy comedy project - We threw it together in about a week for a festival one of our friends was having.

Hope you like them...
 
AVclub said:
I was looking for this thread a while ago. Glad it's back on the front page. I'd like some feedback on some stuff:

Short lightsaber video - Just to try and see if I could composite together some shots and do the whole "rotoscoping" thing needed for saber stuff.

A goofy comedy project - We threw it together in about a week for a festival one of our friends was having.

Hope you like them...
Click to expand...
LOL, at the end credits., both those were really fun to watch. Very slick effects int he light saber one.

Futureman said:
Didn't have much going on so I just put together a video of my GF's cat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvPE0MfZ8Y4
Click to expand...


For just being a cat video that was shot really well. Very nice colors.


GAF, I've been posting here for over a decade, at least tell me how much you hate my Star Wars fan film that I made because of you guys! I've posted it like 5 times without a single response! GAF is in the film, and the credits.

Just acknowledge it exists so I can move on! LOL I'm gonna change the name of it to "GAF you fucking morons you are in this film!"

http://www.vimeo.com/17120655
 
i watched for a solid 10-minutes and then skipped through to the end. the #1 thing i can say is excellent work on the attention to detail and all the artwork and animations. i can't imagine how long it took to parent everything together and make shit happen, let alone how much time it took to draw everything out. really impressive.

i guess it's been a while since i've seen Heavy Metal, because i'm not sure i recognized any of the references. you should be pretty happy with what you've done, it's just that 20 minutes is a little too long for me. did you ever submit it to any local festivals or anything?
 
brerwolfe said:
i watched for a solid 10-minutes and then skipped through to the end. the #1 thing i can say is excellent work on the attention to detail and all the artwork and animations. i can't imagine how long it took to parent everything together and make shit happen, let alone how much time it took to draw everything out. really impressive.

i guess it's been a while since i've seen Heavy Metal, because i'm not sure i recognized any of the references. you should be pretty happy with what you've done, it's just that 20 minutes is a little too long for me. did you ever submit it to any local festivals or anything?
Click to expand...


Holy shit, thank you for responding! I was beginning to think all of GAF had me on ignore. I completely agree that is is too long, it just sorta of happened that way. I took me 3 months to make this basically FOR GAF..

I had all these visions of GAF tearing it apart, telling me how bad it was. I NEVER imagined GAF would pass up a chance to rip something apart.

The reference to Heavy Metal is the tie-in with the Loc Nar, the style of the humor, and the two main characters. Marc and Fred are loosely based on the two alien space truckers from the segment - So Beautiful So Dangerous. I was even going to show them doing Coke but the movie was already too long.

Speaking of movie references, the short is filled with them. It's one of the things I like to do when making a film is pack it with references from other movies. I even have all 4 (never liked the 5th) of the Young Ones in this. Some of the older GAffers should know who The Young Ones are.

Once again, Thank you for responding!

Some movie references hidden (and not so hidden) in the movie

Hellraiser
Halloween 3
Terminator
2001
Smokey and the Bandit
Metropolis
Blade Runner
The Blues Brothers
 
So I watched that "short" all the way through. It was entertaining, but kind of lame in the jokes department. Still, the amount of work you put in making that whole thing is really impressive. I caught references here and there like the puzzle box from Hellraiser as the robot brains. All the drawing, sound and animation was really well done, but like was already said too long. You could easily trim some stuff off. Like when the robots seems to go to the Endor base station but they are really still back on the death star somehow? And you could make the Rock Band scene shorter and completely eliminate that whole drive in thing at the very beginning.

Anyway, great work!
 
All vaild points. Can't argue with any of them. To keep it from being a full length movie I did imply a lot of stuff like how they got to the moon and back. If you added in commercial breaks I bet this could easily be a full South Park episode in terms of length. Way too long.

As for the Jokes, Dan O'Bannon once said "Everyone laughs at something different, but they are all scared of the same thing". (more or less, not an exact quote)

Thanks for responding!

EDIT: oatmeal are you kidding? I practically live there. :)
 
Vigilant Walrus said:
Im going to be gaffa on a pilot for a TV Show.

Any recommendations for what lights to bring?


Its a comedy, so I am thinking well lit, warm colors.

I was thinking:

2 HMIs - with both blue and orange pipes

4-6 - 800 Watt Redheads

a couple of reflector boards

some flags

some cable drums!

some c stands(6 or so...) and clamps


do I need anything else? Its all interior. I think some of it will be fake night and fake daylight. I might need a stronger light source. perhaps a 2k?

I have one short exterior but I dont want to fiddle with goddam generators.. I cant work that shit or take responsible for when everything fucks up. I just run away from the set!



help gaffffff!
Click to expand...

I can help, but you need to answer some questions. How big is the location? How many rooms? Are there windows (for the night for day scene in particular)? What are you shooting on?
 
It's a feature.

He and his buddy co-directed. It's like Session 9 meets REC.

Darclight is currently trying to find a buyer for it. I'm sure it will get a limited release, and will probably get a fair-sized DVD release.
 
MetalAlien said:
I used to love Drive-in cartoons as a kid so I use an intro like that on all our major films. For our next major film I am going to recreate this. I haven't decided if it will be drawings or a model. Another intro I loved as a kid.

HBO's Feature Presentation bumper
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1NKoMNy5bY
Click to expand...

Ah...I get it now.

I'd cut down the intro, then. I thought it was part of the project, not just the intro. 10 seconds or less is good. 30 is too long.
 
oatmeal said:
Ah...I get it now.

I'd cut down the intro, then. I thought it was part of the project, not just the intro. 10 seconds or less is good. 30 is too long.
Click to expand...


Viewers will have to tolerate my love for nostalgic intros, sorry. :)
 
kai3345 said:
Anyone know what this effect is called, or how to achieve it?

I don't know exactly how to describe it, I always just call it "The Strobelight Effect". A lot of action movies and music videos use it. I named it that because its usually used in shots with a lot of movement and it looks as if someone was making a bunch of movement in a strobelight, just minus the actual strobelight.

I'll see if I can dig up an example on youtube.
Click to expand...

If you're talking about the effect used in Gladiator/Saving Private Ryan, then you're talking about shooting with a fast shutter speed, 1/250 or higher. Remember you need more light the faster the shutter speed is.
 
Raxel said:
If you're talking about the effect used in Gladiator/Saving Private Ryan, then you're talking about shooting with a fast shutter speed, 1/250 or higher. Remember you need more light the faster the shutter speed is.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't it be slower shutter speeds? Having fewer frames in a shot, thus causing the "jumping"

I always thought high shutter speed=slow mo
 
kai3345 said:
Wouldn't it be slower shutter speeds? Having fewer frames in a shot, thus causing the "jumping"

I always thought high shutter speed=slow mo
Click to expand...

I think you're confusing shutter speed and fps. Fast shutter speed reduces motion blur and gives it a "frenetic" feeling.
 
All right, it's been a while, but I pretty much have a full chapter (10 mins) to share! I still have a scene or two to work on near the end to make it perfect and it could always use a bit more tweaking, but here's a more complete rough cut.

Shot completely on one T2i(550d) over the course of a month. This chapter was about four days of fast blasting shooting.

THE SET UP:
Pretty simple. Three dudes in a shitty, shitty garage band. Throughout the movie, the drummer (Chris) has been carrying around a water jug with him.


THE VIDEO:
http://vimeo.com/17513494

I appreciate any and all feed back!
 
Here is another, short one, only 2 minutes.This is a mixture of animation and video taken with the EX3. A UFO discovers something strange and goes in to investigate.

The clip with the sparks floating around the tree took my computer 3 hours to render and my computer is pretty stout. :) Also near the end look at all the reflections on the table. That was a lot to work out using only Sony Vegas.


The Christmas Tree (animated short)
http://www.vimeo.com/17552009
 
Thanks Oatmeal. The Huntridge is at Charleston and Maryland Parkway. They say they have plans to restore the whole corner. I hope they do.
 
MetalAlien said:
Here is another, short one, only 2 minutes.This is a mixture of animation and video taken with the EX3. A UFO discovers something strange and goes in to investigate.

The clip with the sparks floating around the tree took my computer 3 hours to render and my computer is pretty stout. :) Also near the end look at all the reflections on the table. That was a lot to work out using only Sony Vegas.


The Christmas Tree (animated short)
http://www.vimeo.com/17552009
Click to expand...

That's pretty neat, man! Short and sweet. Really nice use of shots and everything too.

And thanks for commenting on my video! I'm glad it actually got a laugh out of you. That's got to be a good thing.
 
Fidelis Hodie said:
All right, it's been a while, but I pretty much have a full chapter (10 mins) to share! I still have a scene or two to work on near the end to make it perfect and it could always use a bit more tweaking, but here's a more complete rough cut.

Shot completely on one T2i(550d) over the course of a month. This chapter was about four days of fast blasting shooting.

THE SET UP:
Pretty simple. Three dudes in a shitty, shitty garage band. Throughout the movie, the drummer (Chris) has been carrying around a water jug with him.


THE VIDEO:
http://vimeo.com/17513494

I appreciate any and all feed back!
Click to expand...
That was great!

A couple small critiques though:

-When you originally posted a portion of this chapter, I liked the original name you had better "Chris Quits Cold Turkey".

-During some of the playing scenes, I heard no music playing even though it looked like you were, I assume you've just yet to add it in post, but just incase you weren't, just thought I'd give a heads up.

-Also after Chris quits the band and goes back for a drink, someone can be heard talking really loud for a split second before the shot changes, almost as if you forgot to cut completely before someone yelled "Cut!"

But otherwise its great! Let me know when the final product is out, and where I can get my hands on it! I'm really interested in these characters.
 
kai3345 said:
That was great!

A couple small critiques though:

-When you originally posted a portion of this chapter, I liked the original name you had better "Chris Quits Cold Turkey".

-During some of the playing scenes, I heard no music playing even though it looked like you were, I assume you've just yet to add it in post, but just incase you weren't, just thought I'd give a heads up.

-Also after Chris quits the band and goes back for a drink, someone can be heard talking really loud for a split second before the shot changes, almost as if you forgot to cut completely before someone yelled "Cut!"

But otherwise its great! Let me know when the final product is out, and where I can get my hands on it! I'm really interested in these characters.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the write up! I really appreciate the viewing. I cut down the title because it was a bit too "It's Always Sunny . ." for my likings, but I'll probably change it back.

The sound is spotty in parts because I hadn't touched it yet, but I went back to that last scene and fixed it up. It's amazing what 4 hours+ in front of a computer can make you miss.

I'll definitely keep you updated. I'm hoping to have the whole thing ready for viewing by January 1st.
 
Ok, fuck Movie Maker 7.

Movie Maker XP may not have been top of the line, but at least it was fucking useable.

Anyone know of any good free video editors? just looking to do the basics of cutting and pasting clips and adding music, preferably one that works with HD video.
 
kai3345 said:
Ok, fuck Movie Maker 7.

Movie Maker XP may not have been top of the line, but at least it was fucking useable.

Anyone know of any good free video editors? just looking to do the basics of cutting and pasting clips and adding music, preferably one that works with HD video.
Click to expand...
I use a Mac for editing, and have no experience with this, but if you're tolerant of potential crashes, you can try the early version of the VideoLan Movie Creator, from the guys that make VLC Player:

http://trac.videolan.org/vlmc/wiki/Downloads

If you do end up trying it, let me know how it is.
 
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